Allergen Bill

I have a question about the Allergen Bill. In addition to clearly listening other hidden ingredients (ie, "modified food starch-wheat"), how about spices and artificial flavors? Will companies clearly state those as well?

If any of the top right allergens are present in any form they will have to be clearly listed.

richard

Richard, You are writing to people who suffer from foggy mindedness and maybe I'm worse than most. I've wondered about this and was eager to see what you had to say because I usually admire your knowledge, but honestly, you didn't tell me a thing. What do you mean, "top right allergens" ?? granny

requires the Food and Drug Administration to issue final regulations defining “gluten-free” by January 2008. The rules would also set out guidelines for the voluntary labeling of products as ‘gluten-free.’

The panel decided that the immediate death risk exists for those eight allergens, not for barley, so it's highly unlikely it'll be added to the list. There is a provision in the bill for defining what "gluten-free" means, but this bill is not going to cover all cases. We simply don't have the immediate, serious health risk from a single exposure. (No, I'm not belittleing the celiac response, I'm merely talking that, in terms of dollars, one person dying from anaphylactic shock is going to be more expensive, on net, than - say - three people (a little assumption there than anaphylactic allergies are only present in 0.3% of the population - not based on fact, so no quoting! ;-) ) feeling very bad and being miserable and out of work for a week. They're not going to look at chronic exposure quite as much as immediate reactions.